UNLV's Barry Odom was targeted in the coaching search

ORLANDO – The UCF football coaching search has intensified ahead of conference championship weekend and just days after Gus Malzahn left to become Florida State’s offensive coordinator.

The News-Journal explored the possibility of Scott Frost’s potential return on Thursday and is now turning its attention to another serious candidate for the job: UNLV’s Barry Odom, according to FootballScoop.

Odom, 48, will lead the 20th-ranked Rebels into the Mountain West Conference title game against No. 10 Boise State on Friday at 8 p.m. The winner will most likely receive automatic entry into the College Football Playoff as one of the top five conference champions.

In two seasons at UNLV, Odom has a 19-7 record, leading the school’s first 10-win season in 40 years. Overall, he has a 44-32 record, which includes his 25-25 record in four seasons at Missouri from 2016-19.

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What makes Barry Odom a good choice as UCF coach?

Let’s put Odom’s accomplishments at UNLV in perspective. He won in a place where it seemed impossible.

UNLV went a full decade between bowl games (2013-2023), posting 12 winning seasons since joining Division I as an independent in 1977. In two of these campaigns (1983–84) the club was forced to forfeit every win because it used seven of them for academic ineligible players.

He also did so despite a NIL-related fiasco that could have torpedoed the Rebels’ playoff hopes. Starting quarterback Matthew Sluka declared his intention to enter the transfer portal after three games. His agent and father said Sluka was promised $100,000 to transfer from Holy Cross but was never paid out.

UNLV responded that the defendant’s “demands” violated the NCAA’s pay-for-play rules and Nevada state law.

The Rebels, with Sluka under center, opened 2024 with two road wins against Big 12 opponents Houston and Kansas. From there, they went 7-2, with an overtime loss to Syracuse and a five-point loss to Boise State being the only misses.

In Odom’s final season at Missouri, the Tigers ranked 14th nationally in total defense (312.0 ppg) and 17th in scoring defense (19.4 ppg). As defensive coordinator, he led Missouri and Memphis to top-10 national rankings in yards allowed.

On the other hand, Odom brought in Brennan Marion as offensive coordinator after Bobby Petrino suddenly resigned from the same position at Texas A&M. Marion’s innovative “GoGo” offense – a fast-paced, zone-based, multi-formation system – ranks fourth nationally in rushing (254.1 ppg) and seventh in scoring (38.7 ppg).

Marion — who played at Tulsa while Malzahn served as offensive coordinator — has been linked to a handful of Power Four coordinator jobs as well as a few head coaching positions in the Group of Five. But it could be a coup if UCF could get him along with Odom.

As for the financial component, Odom signed a contract extension with UNLV through 2028. His base salary is $1.75 million, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. By comparison, every head coach at a public Big 12 institution earned at least $3 million this fall, according to USA TODAY’s database.

Malzahn had $4 million guaranteed for 2024 and was scheduled to make $16 million over the following three seasons.

What could make Barry Odom the wrong choice for UCF head coach?

Depending on UNLV’s result on Friday, Odom may not be available for another month. The CFP first-round games will take place December 20-21. If the Rebels are placed in the top four, they will receive a bye until either December 31st or January 1st.

Speaking to WESH’s Daren Stolzfus on Friday, FootballScoop’s John Brice said: “It’s just hard for me to imagine Barry Odom not being coach watching (UNLV) in the playoffs if it could win at Boise State (Friday). .”

This timing would be less than ideal for UCF as it affects 2025. Current players first became eligible to enter their names into the NCAA transfer portal on Dec. 2, and the window lasts 30 days. Additionally, players from most schools can participate from December 9th to 28th.

That’s a crucial amount of time from a roster-building perspective, considering the Knights lost their graduation, defected to the portal and the high school signing class was relatively small. Programs like Indiana and Syracuse have shown that immediate turnaround is possible, but perhaps more of an outlier than the norm.

Odom’s tenure as head coach at Missouri was far more mediocre than his two-year tenure in Las Vegas. The Tigers went on a five-game losing streak midway through the season in 2019, which ultimately led to his firing.

“As a program, we had tremendous momentum entering the 2019 season with the opening of the new South End Zone facility as well as other strategic investments in our football program,” Missouri athletic director Jim Sterk said in a statement at the time. “However, we lost a lot of that energy in the last half of the season. This decision was difficult to make but necessary.”

Despite being able to offer SEC football, Missouri never finished in the top 30 of 247Sports composite recruiting rankings under Odom. The Tigers signed six consensus blue-chip players during his tenure.

In comparison, Missouri signed 10 top players for the 2025 graduating class on Wednesday, including four-star Florida prepsters Javion Hilson (Cocoa Defensive End) and Donovan Olugbode (IMG Academy Wide Receiver).

According to Brice, UCF will not be alone in pursuing Odom. Purdue, which fired Ryan Walters after a 5-19 run over two seasons, is also reportedly interested in the Oklahoma native.

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